The study of history is a powerful antidote to contemporary arrogance. It is humbling to discover how many of our glib assumptions,… — Paul Johnson Copy Share Image
At some time in their careers, most good historians itch to write a history of the world, endeavor to discover what makes… — Paul Johnson Copy Share Image
Marxism, Freudianism, global warming. These are proof - of which history offers so many examples - that people can be suckers on… — Paul Johnson Copy Share Image
What strikes the historian surveying anti-Semitism worldwide over more than two millennia is its fundamental irrationality. It seems to make no sense,… — Paul Johnson Copy Share Image
“How could the Christian Church, apparently quite willingly, accommodate this weird megalomaniac [Constantine] in it's theocratic system? Was there a conscious bargain?… — Paul Johnson Copy Share Image
Like many physical diseases, anti-Semitism is highly infectious, and can become endemic in certain localities and societies. Though a disease of the… — Paul Johnson Copy Share Image
Is there any possibility of giving international air travel, which we all need and use and hate, a touch of glamour, or… — Paul Johnson Copy Share Image
Every good historian is almost by definition a revisionist. He looks at the accepted view of a particular historic episode or period… — Paul Johnson Copy Share Image
“Partly by accident, partly by instinct, partly by deliberate contrivance, he was the first intellectual systematically to exploit the guilt of the privileged. And… — Paul Johnson Copy Share Image
“The Salem [witch] trials…can be seen as an example of the propensity of the American people to be convulsed by spasms of self-righteous rage… — Paul Johnson Copy Share Image
“Much of Sartre’s time in the 1960s was spent travelling in China and the Third World, a term invented by the geographer Alfred Sauvy… — Paul Johnson Copy Share Image
“He [Augustine] admitted: 'I am the sort of man who writes because he has made progress, and who makes progress by writing.' ” — Paul Johnson Copy Share Image
The most intimidating world leader was Lyndon Johnson, who became U.S. President when John Kennedy was assassinated. He exulted in this power and liked… — Paul Johnson Copy Share Image
“Marx wrote about finance and industry all his life but he only knew two people connected with financial and industrial processes. One was his… — Paul Johnson Copy Share Image
“When we are dealing with concepts like freedom and equality, it is essential to use words accurately and in good faith. So the eighth… — Paul Johnson Copy Share Image
Margaret Thatcher had more impact on the world than any woman ruler since Catherine the Great of Russia. Not only did she turn around… — Paul Johnson Copy Share Image
Wisdom lies not in possessing knowledge - which quickly becomes outdated - but in perpetually seeking it. — Paul Johnson Copy Share Image
The planet Earth, though not threatened with destruction by man-made global warming, is by no means indestructible. There are many unpredictable events within our… — Paul Johnson Copy Share Image
“As Khrushchev put it, “He prodded the capitalist world with the tip of his bayonet.” He himself put it, “If I see a door… — Paul Johnson Copy Share Image
